Colin Powell, an Arduous Road to Great Success

 

In 1958, when Colin Powell was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army, the former slave states still had Jim Crow laws in effect and the rest of the states had other discriminatory laws. Just a decade before in 1948, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the Army. Truman opened the path of leadership to Black soldiers, but that path was not easy.

In World War II and before, Black soldiers were in segregated units, nearly always with white officers.  My Dad was one of those officers during World War II, commander of a Black supply company at a supply base in Shenango Township, Pennsylvania.  His next assignment was Jewish commandant of a Prisoner of War Camp for soldiers of the German Afrika Korps.

While desegregation was law in the Army nearly two-thirds of the soldiers in the Army were (and are) from the South and the West.  Black officers had to lead soldiers who did not believe they should be officers.  

Four years ago I went to a promotion ceremony for Myles B. Caggins, III. He was a major when we served together in Iraq in 2009 and was being promoted to Colonel.  His father, retired Colonel Myles B. Caggins, Jr., was there to see his son wear eagles on his shoulders.  

Like Colin Powell, Caggins, Jr., served in the Army before and after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Both Powell and Caggins served in the Vietnam War, leading soldiers in battle.  Leadership is always difficult, the road Powell and Caggins walked was grueling. 

I have already seen criticisms of Colin Powell.  

None of those critics have ever overcome the obstacles the Powell surmounted, and none have achieved what he achieved.  May Colin Powell be as blessed in the next life as he was brave in this life.